Dental Implants And Peri-Implantitis

Diligent aftercare is important for long term implant benefits.

In various blog posts we have stated the many benefits of having dental implants placed to replace a missing tooth. These include strength, stability and longevity, to name but a few.

As with all oral health issues though, these things will not be achieved without dedicating a little time to looking after your implants.

Fortunately, as we shall see, this is not a time consuming task, or especially difficult to do. Failure to look after your implants though, may lead to problems such as peri-implantitis, which we will take a look at in today’s Lodge Dental Suite blog.

What is peri-implantitis?

We have discussed periodontitis (advanced gum disease) in previous blogs. Peri-implantitis has some similar symptoms to this oral health issue, but specifically relates to problems that can threaten the health or survival of your dental implant. Peri-implantitis is an infectious disease that can lead to inflammation of both the gum and the bone into which a dental implant has already been placed. This can happen at any time during the lifetime of an implant and may lead to the loss of supporting bone in which the implant is placed. This can lead the implant to become loose or even fall out altogether.

Although you may not experience discomfort or other symptoms from this disease until it has become established; once it has, the following symptoms may indicate that it has taken hold:

Deepening of the gum pockets

Blood or pus appearing at the gum line

A sore or bruised appearance of the gums

Exposure of the thread of the implant

Despite the rather unpleasant symptoms mentioned above, the good news for dental patients from Cheshunt and Broxbourne is that keeping your dental implants clean is relatively straightforward.

Keep them clean

Initial dental implant aftercare guidance, which will be given to you following your treatment, should be followed carefully. This is a critical time for your new implanted teeth and will get them off to a good start in life.

Ongoing care of your implants is important too though, for the reasons mentioned above. This does not involve any complicated procedure and simply means making sure that you brush really well around the replacement tooth, especially around the gumline, so that bacteria is removed. If you do not floss, then you should definitely add this to your daily regimen; our hygienist will be happy to demonstrate how to do this effectively. Indeed, you should also see the hygienist at least twice a year for a scale and polish, where hardened and difficult to remove deposits can be cleaned from your teeth and around the implant area.

With just this simple aftercare, the risk of peri-implantitis can be significantly reduced.

The latest implants are available at The Lodge Dental Suite and we will be pleased to discuss these with you, should you be considering the best way to replace your missing teeth. For a no obligation initial consultation, please call our Cheshunt dentist on 01992 643 388.